Intellectually Entertaining. Socially Relevant.
Hector Luis Alamo, Jr., is the associate editor at Being Latino and a native son of Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. He received a B.A. in history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where his concentration was on ethnic relations in the United States. While at UIC, he worked first as a staff writer for the Chicago Flame and later became the newspaper's Opinions editor. He contributes to various Chicago-area publications, most notably, the RedEye and Gozamos. He's also a cultural critic for 'LLERO magazine. He has maintained a personal blog since 2007, YoungObservers.blogspot.com, where he discusses topics ranging from political history and philosophy to culture and music.
The Puerto Ricans just voted on the island’s political status, but Pres. Obama is calling for a redo: “Puerto Rico may be getting another status vote. The White House budget submitted to Congress Wednesday includes a $2.5 million appropriation for Puerto Rico to hold another plebiscite on its relationship to the United States. Calling for another vote Read More
John Womack begins the story best: “Shortly after dawn on April 10 [1919] Zapata and his escort were up and riding. This was Zapata’s home ground. Chinameca hacienda lay along the Cuautla River barely thirty-five miles below Villa de Ayala. It was one of the first places he had seized after joining Madero in 1911. Read More
Think Mexican points to a revealing 1972 interview with César Chávez, in which the famed labor leader and civil rights activist reproaches undocumented workers: “This is the case right now, one of the strikes we have with the Butte Gas & Oil Co., where we’ve closed them down. They’ve been unable to get strikebreakers, or have Read More
Someone at the AP either grew a heart or grew a brain: “The Associated Press dropped the term ‘illegal immigrant’ from its style guide Tuesday, handing a victory to immigration rights advocates and Latino media organizations who have pressured the news media for years to abandon a phrase that many view as offensive. The news Read More
It’s happened. Homosexuals have infiltrated the hallowed stages of our beauty contests: “In her audition for Univision’s popular beauty-pageant reality series Nuestra Belleza Latina, Karina Hermosillo came out as a proud and openly lesbian Latina. And live on-air on last night’s episode — the third in the season — Karina wept as she spoke on Read More
Republicans, what has the country been telling you for the past year concerning the way you talk about Latinos? Tone, tone, tone. Yet it seems the GOP can’t go a week without doing or saying something without incurring the wrath of the 17 percent. This time, it’s an Alaska congressman: “Rep. Don Young says he Read More
God said, “Let there be light on this ‘first Latino pope’ issue,” and God divided the “Latino” from the “Latin American.” From the AP via HuffPo: “He is being hailed with pride and wonder as the ‘first Latino pope,’ a native Spanish speaker born and raised in the South American nation of Argentina. But for Read More
Humanity certainly needs its wishers and hopers. So it’s good to see there are still some optimists enduring in the most inhospitable place on earth: “Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) on Tuesday downplayed the notion that a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would serve as a major obstacle to passing comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that Read More
Two Rand Paul pieces in one day? The earth must’ve slipped into a wormhole last night. Surely this day will live in infamy on the pages of WTF history: “Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is endorsing a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, a significant move for a favorite of Read More
The public has a penchant for looming conflicts. Last year it was the fiscal cliff. Now the country’s apparently headed toward a racial cliff: “A historic decline in the number of U.S. whites and the fast growth of Latinos are blurring traditional black-white color lines, testing the limits of civil rights laws and reshaping political Read More